Spied - Yamaha YZF-R3 testing in India

Snapshot: So it begins! Yamaha has started testing the R3 in India, here are the first spy pics!!

They are desperately awaited, and there is no other way to put it forwards without using the word desperate. Ever since the first ever news broke out from Yamaha Thailand about the YZF-R25 and then the other global versions getting a bump in everything and getting the name YZF-R3., everyone in India has been desperately waiting for these quarter liter spectacles from Yamaha to land on our shores.

A rather strange delay in launching of the R25 or the R# or both in India has been called as a confusion within Yamaha Motor India regarding what should be launched here. Destined to arrive as a CKD from Thailand the R25 might end up costing considerably higher than its direct rivals like the RC390 and the Kawasaki Ninja 300 while the R3 might just be a perfect bike to deal with the Ninja 300, but again the pricing would mean that the single cyclinder rivals like the RC390 and the upcoming upgrade of the Honda CBR250R as the CBR300R will still have pretty much the entire segment to play with on their own.

Thus, it seems right for Yamaha to bring both, the R25 and the R3 in India and we wish they decide to go for local manufacturing instead of CKD, a step, if taken, would give Yamaha a huge advantage ahead of its competition and might just start of a trend, bringing new technology and powerful multi cyclinder motorcycle manufacturing in India.

Back in January we reported that Yamaha has imported 2 Black coloured R3's in the country for R&D purposes and here we have the first ever pics of these bikes undergoing testing around the Yamaha factory at Greater Noida. The Spied photographs has been clicked by Mr. Tushar Mishra and has been shared by our friends at Motoroids.

The YZF-R3 is powered by a 320cc parallel twin-cylinder engine with DOHC which enables the engine to produce a peak power of 42PS, while the peak torque comes around at 29.6Nm. Utilizing what Yamaha calls the R-Series technology which incorporates tech like a direct-drive camshaft, forged pistons, carburized con rods, low-friction cylinders and much more, while the transmission is a constant mesh, 6-speed.

Yamaha has gone to lengths showing how the R3 has been brought up at the racetrack with rider inputs from people as legendary as the MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi. Thus, the R3 promises to be one of the sharpest and most cutting edge motorcycles in the sub 500cc category if and when it goes on sale in the Indian motorcycle market. However, it might be disappointing to the track focused riders, but R3's ergonomics aren’t as track-focused as the smaller R15, which should appeal to an even bigger base of casual riders than before.